Agenda item

1.         That new contracts be awarded until 2017 under newly agreed terms from 2014 with Virgin Care Services Limited (VCSL) and Central Surrey Health Limited (CSHL) a Surrey-based social enterprise, whilst joint commissioning arrangements are agreed with the NHS.

2.         Milestones be agreed to enable early action to be taken before 2017 if a joint commissioning framework cannot be agreed with the NHS.  These milestones will be measured and will inform the decision on whether this service should be re-tendered earlier than 2017.  If a joint commissioning framework cannot be agreed with the NHS by April 2015, the service will be re-tendered and new contracts will be awarded from April 2016, taking advantage of a break clause in both contracts which enables early termination.

Reasons for Decisions:

Although commissioned by two organisations (Surrey County Council and the NHS), as far as the child or young person at Surrey’s maintained Special Schools is concerned, they are accessing one service.  If Surrey County Council (SCC) were to re-tender this service alone, it could potentially mean that two different providers would be going into the same school.  This could cause disruption and dissatisfaction to our vulnerable service users.

Significant progress has been made with the NHS over the last six months, with agreement from the Health and Wellbeing Board to establish joint commissioning arrangements in Surrey for the delivery of paediatric therapies.

For joint commissioning to take place our contract arrangements with providers need to be aligned, therefore the recommendation is that new contracts should be awarded until 2017 in line with termination of NHS block contracts with the same providers. 

This will enable SCC and the NHS to jointly commission the delivery of paediatric therapy services in Surrey providing single and equitable outcomes focused services for children and young people.

Tendering at this stage would not support the local authority’s aim to agree joint commissioning arrangements with the NHS to deliver the paediatric therapy service in Surrey.  The current shared commissioning arrangements for this service means that contracting with new providers may only add confusion and further dissatisfaction to our service users.  By using the same providers as the NHS, SCC has been able to secure competitive rates for these services.  Running a competitive process would not necessarily remove the existing contractors from the service delivery as it is likely that they would win the tenders or parts of the tenders.

Improving the management of the contract will still go ahead with the existing providers and it avoids the variable performance in services that is sometimes experienced by end-users when a new contractor mobilises at the start of a new contract.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee]

The Cabinet Member for Schools and Learning said that currently, both Surrey County Council (SCC) and the National Health Service (NHS) in Surrey entered into contracts with providers of paediatric therapy services in Surrey to provide services to Surrey children with special educational needs and disabilities who attended Surrey schools.

The provider organisations were Virgin Care Services Limited (VCSL) and Central Surrey Health Limited (CSHL). The County Council and the NHS in Surrey had agreed to move as soon as possible to a joint commissioning arrangement.

As the SCC contracts terminate on 31 March 2014 and the NHS contracts terminate on 31 March 2017, April 2017 is the agreed date to commence joint commissioning.

She also proposed an amendment to Recommendation (2), adding after April 2016:

‘taking advantage of a break clause in both contracts which enables early termination.’

In his capacity as Local Authority Governor of the Abbey School, the Chairman of the Council was invited to address Cabinet. He said that the provision of speech and language therapy for special schools was critical and this report was welcomed. He hoped that the joint commissioning would come to fruition and asked that during the negotiation of the contracts that the pay and conditions for staff be addressed to ensure consistency.

Finally, the Cabinet Member for Schools and Learning referred to the Equalities Impact Assessment and said that in Surrey there were over 5000 children and young people with Special Educational Needs statements.

[The Cabinet Member for Public Health and Health and Wellbeing Board abstained from this item]

RESOLVED (as amended):

1.         That new contracts be awarded until 2017 under newly agreed terms from 2014 with Virgin Care Services Limited (VCSL) and Central Surrey Health Limited (CSHL) a Surrey-based social enterprise, whilst joint commissioning arrangements are agreed with the NHS.

2.         Milestones be agreed to enable early action to be taken before 2017 if a joint commissioning framework cannot be agreed with the NHS.  These milestones will be measured and will inform the decision on whether this service should be re-tendered earlier than 2017.  If a joint commissioning framework cannot be agreed with the NHS by April 2015, the service will be re-tendered and new contracts will be awarded from April 2016, taking advantage of a break clause in both contracts which enables early termination.

Reasons for Decisions:

Although commissioned by two organisations (Surrey County Council and the NHS), as far as the child or young person at Surrey’s maintained Special Schools is concerned, they are accessing one service.  If Surrey County Council (SCC) were to re-tender this service alone, it could potentially mean that two different providers would be going into the same school.  This could cause disruption and dissatisfaction to our vulnerable service users.

Significant progress has been made with the NHS over the last six months, with agreement from the Health and Wellbeing Board to establish joint commissioning arrangements in Surrey for the delivery of paediatric therapies.

For joint commissioning to take place our contract arrangements with providers need to be aligned, therefore the recommendation is that new contracts should be awarded until 2017 in line with termination of NHS block contracts with the same providers. 

This will enable SCC and the NHS to jointly commission the delivery of paediatric therapy services in Surrey providing single and equitable outcomes focused services for children and young people.

Tendering at this stage would not support the local authority’s aim to agree joint commissioning arrangements with the NHS to deliver the paediatric therapy service in Surrey.  The current shared commissioning arrangements for this service means that contracting with new providers may only add confusion and further dissatisfaction to our service users.  By using the same providers as the NHS, SCC has been able to secure competitive rates for these services.  Running a competitive process would not necessarily remove the existing contractors from the service delivery as it is likely that they would win the tenders or parts of the tenders.

Improving the management of the contract will still go ahead with the existing providers and it avoids the variable performance in services that is sometimes experienced by end-users when a new contractor mobilises at the start of a new contract.